"A long time ago, but only if you measure in terms of years..." -- Richard Dreyfuss, Stand by Me
Categories: Grade School Movies,Flickipedia,Going Back to School Movies
Going back to school! But what was it like? Doubtless our own childhoods happened differently than the way we all remember them, but who cares: it’s the emotional memories that count, and only a handful of movies have faithfully and intelligently spoke to that truth. From Flickipedia...
I Was Born, But... (1932) Like a Little Rascals episode writ large and filmed by a meticulous genius, this silent Japanese film by Yasujiro Ozu views the world of two prepubescent brothers from three feet off the ground, as they struggle with the playground hierarchy in their neighborhood, and discover in horror that their office-worker father is subjugated by the same conflicts. Because Ozu was always concerned with perspective and observation above all things, this film focuses on the real give-and-take of being a boy, and being eight.
Zero de Conduite (1933) As much as this Jean Vigo mini-masterpiece may be helpful in terms of "Parenting Tweens & Teens," it’s also a vivid snapshot of grade-school rebelliousness – you may’ve forgotten what it was like to spitball a teacher in 5th grade, or what it felt like to want to, but this visionary little gem jacks you into that universal spirit in no time flat, and at the same acts out your craziest preadolescent wishes of ridiculous chaos.
The Curse of the Cat People (1944) One of the quiet miracles of ‘40s B-moviemaking, this is a dream-like journey into an eight-year-old girl’s fantasy world, as the daughter of Kent Smith, the hero from Cat People now remarried, is visited by the ghost of his first wife (Simone Simon). Shadowy, gentle, and captivating.
The 400 Blows (1958) This semi-autobiographical French New Wave landmark by Francois Truffaut is as potent a vehicle for an adult’s autobiographical ruminations as it is a guide to the new adolescent’s storming terrain. Watch Jean-Pierre Leaud as he watches grown-ups, steals happiness in their absence, and warily regards the world that grates against him at every turn.
If... (1969) British critic-turned director Lindsay Anderson made his mark with this boarding-school diatribe, which remade Zero de Conduite down to the rooftop climax, but in the process cut the English disciplinarian education system to ribbons. It was, also, a generational anthem-film, ill-mannered and furious, and it made Malcolm McDowell enough of a key figure to make him Stanley Kubrick’s inevitable casting choice the next year for A Clockwork Orange.
Small Change (1976) Truffaut returns to early adolescence, in a tapestry film depicting an array of suburban French children, overcoming ordinary adversities and embracing life’s simple glories in ways that are alien to grown-ups. Invigorating and hope-generating.
Welcome to the Dollhouse (1995) If you don’t remember the killing fields of the seventh grade, this movie’s a reminder, opening in the Theater of Cruelty of the junior high school cafeteria, where finding somewhere to sit and someone who will let you sit with them has all the shivery dread of being lost in a police state without ID. The camera slowly circles around the 11-year-old Dawn Weiner (Heather Matarazzo), standing there holding her tray and surveying the combat zone, her bespectacled face a knot of huddled horror. You’ve been there.
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